Mental health disorders pose a massive economic and societal burden. Emerging early in development and resulting in long-term disability, neurodevelopmental dysfunctions (NDD) compromise the quality of life of millions of Europeans. The purpose of the Neo-PRISM-C ETN is (1) to train Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in applying the Research Domain Criteria, a novel framework for understanding psychopathology, to the study of the mechanisms and treatments of NDD. It aims (2) to train ESRs from multiple disciplines (psychology, neuroscience, data science) in state-of-the-art and transferable skills for innovating the study of brain-behavior relationships in NDD, in the context of a systems-based, trans-diagnostic theoretical frame. This ETN will also (3) support training in designing evidence-based, individualized treatments of learning, behavioral, and social maladjustment, bridging across diagnostic categories. Towards these goals, we have assembled a trans-sectoral European network with expertise in cognitive, social, educational, clinical, and emotion research and in training ESRs. Six research, training and management work packages (WPs) pursue these goals. WP1 comprises innovative projects, investigating risk and protective factors that span across NDD diagnostic categories (autism, learning, emotional difficulties) and linking to healthcare industry and education. WP2 examines systems-level brain development to identify biological substrates of specific dysfunctions. WP3 applies this knowledge to develop new multi-modal interventions to address domains of impairment. The academic, industrial and clinical partners collaborate across themes, offering ESRs project-specific secondments, supervision, workshops, summer school and courses on research, transferable and entrepreneurial skills. Neo-PRISM-C is expected to further understanding of NDD and improve the competitiveness of EU health professions, providing the market with highly-skilled researchers and clinicians.

"AisforApp bridged the GapThe overall aim of the A is for App project was to improve the literacy, and more specific the reading fluency, of struggling readers in primary schools throughout Europe. Its focus was to encourage the use of innovative teaching practices based on digital opportunities. A is for App supported primary school teachers to use diversified, ICT-based methodologies and reading-fluency apps in a classroom setting for the benefit of struggling readers. A is for App thereby bridged the gap between existing (academic) knowledge on effective methodologies for struggling readers, and the actual use of quality IT tools in the classroom. By exposing pupils with low reading fluency levels and their teachers to leading apps on tablets and by using testing results pre and post-test, this project not only explored new and more accessible methodologies, it also developed cutting edge e-reading tools for the future, based on real-life tests and user-input from teachers.A is for App’s specific objectives:(1) To define the typical characteristics of appropriate apps for reading fluency and to outline how to use these apps in a diversified approach to the advantage of struggling readers in the classroom.(2) To create hands-on tools with and for teachers allowing them to use this knowledge in their day-to-day inclusive teaching practice.(3) To raise awareness and to build an international community centred around the possibilities of literacy apps for struggling readers involving all relevant stakeholders, including app developers and policymakers.Target Groups:A is for App mainly targeted struggling readers in primary school and their teachers. Additional target groups were parents, national and European educational policymakers, teacher training colleges and in service trainers, literacy organisations, app developers and academic literacy experts.AisforApp outputs and results:A is for App developed several activities, resulting in 7 main intellectual outputs:1. A stakeholder engagement strategy report, used for dissemination by all partners throughout; 2. The design and release of an A is for App platform (www.aisforapp.eu) in three languages;3. App inventories and app evaluations for Flanders, the Netherlands and the UK; (see app selections per country in https://www.aisforapp.eu/teacher-toolkit) for App selection criteria, see the annex to the IT Literacy Framework, go to: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-resources;4. A teacher toolkit with hands-on tips for teachers on fluency apps and the use of apps in the classroom (in Czech, Dutch and English); https://www.aisforapp.eu/teacher-toolkit;5. A quality game-reading app in the Czech language, the first of its kind in the Czech Republic; go to: https://game.karaton.cz6. An IT literacy curriculum framework to guide schools wishing to improve their digital education for struggling readers (in three languages); see website, go to: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-resources;7. A final report for the dissemination of results; see tab ""results"" on website: https://www.aisforapp.eu/copy-of-toolkit-for-teachers.Conclusions and Recommendations:Bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, knowing good tools and knowing how to use them and the business of updating and tailoring what was already there in this fast changing digital world is a challenge that AisforApp is willing to continue taking. Our conclusions are that interventions are needed to aid reading, spelling and writing, including the use of educational technology. It important to keep designing and testing novel interventions via experimental methods. This means that: o Above school level, we need educational partnerships between software/app designers, schools and teachers, experts on literacy, parents and families, school districts.o At school level, implementation of IT interventions necessitates technological infrastructure, a monitoring system for student outcomes, professional support for teachers, the motivation of pupils, monitoring of intervention fidelity and evaluation of outcomes.o At school level, sustaining the use of IT necessitates an innovative school culture, an explicit reading policy including its practical implications.o At European level, there needs to be a transfer of knowledge between countries advanced in IT in schools, and countries only starting to go the IT route in education. Before AisforApp Czechia had no apps, now they have a quality game app that can be used country-wide. Jenny Thomson, (Sheffield University) to teachers: “We need you – our lofty ideas need to be adjusted, the on-the-ground-experience is vital. That way we start asking questions that we didn’t know to ask at the beginning.” Ella Duijnker, (Head Teacher Steigereiland Primary Montessori “AisforApp opened our awareness on how apps improve the learning environment in schools.”"

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) show highly heterogeneous behavioural, cognitive and brain profiles with much larger overlap between, e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), than assumed by current diagnostic approaches. It remains unclear how the individual profiles of deficits and strengths result in child specific idiosyncratic development. Besides relying on discrete categories, the current diagnostic approaches assume relatively stable NDD symptoms across development while recent findings suggest more dynamic changes in the symptoms across development. The interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral Tools4NDDs consortium aims to employ recent technological advancements to better understand the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of NDDs. Our consortium utilizes the advances in transdiagnostic research, as well as the potential of digital technological solutions to improve diagnostic and intervention tools for NDDs. The general objective is to better integrate the transdiagnostic framework in translating empirical findings to available and emerging tools while taking into account children’s divergent sociodemograpic backgrounds. Knowledge transfer, training and research on this is carried out through secondments, online work groups and library as well as yearly workshops. Our transdiagnostic approach has great potential in improving both the understanding of the dynamical mechanisms underlying NDDs, and ultimately, the development of personalized diagnostic practice and intervention designs. As long-term outcomes, to promote much needed innovations towards early, personalized, and effective identification and support for children with NDDs, thereby improving their quality-of-life.

<< Objectives >>Poor reading skills have a negative long-term effect on learner’s inclusion in society. Schools need to find ways to implement the use of digital innovation that have beneficial effects on reading skills and motivation. ”AdAPPtive” seeks to support 64 EU teachers in being agents of change and will study the effects of their active participation in Communities of Practice (CoP) (Wenger, 1998) for the incorporation of state of the art digital reading apps into their everyday classroom practices.<< Implementation >>This project will facilitate nine Community of Practice cycles to:- upskill teachers and support them in designing digital reading app (DRA) implementation plans, collating feedback and implement these - research into how 160 learners benefit from using DRA and what features are most beneficial - research how the CoP approach is a useful mechanism for upskilling teachers and more frequent use of DRAs - develop recommendations for app developers and policy makers on DRA creation and usage<< Results >>The AdAPPtive project will:1.Improve teachers’ knowledge, competence and confidence using digital reading apps (DRA) 2.Develop a road tested, holistic Communities of Practice (CoP) framework3.Collate real-world recommendations from teachers to teachers Europe-wide4.Give recommendations to educational leaders, policy makers, researchers, DRA developers and Prof Development providers on how the CoP approach can increase the use of state of the art DRAs benefitting struggling readers.